This adaptation of one of Henry James' shortest and most popular works
contains, in cameo, a theme that winds through more elaborate novels
like The Ambassadors: the ineluctable tension between European and American
cultures that leads to corruption. What Peter Bogdanovich's movie is
mostly about, however, is flirting.

Great chunks of dialogue and narration have been lifted from the book,
like so many concrete blocks, and deposited onto the screen. They
arrange themselves as a series of hurdles, which the actors negotiate
with disheartening...